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James Surowiecki

Who killed the Twinkie?

The problem, of course, is that that destruction is going to upend the lives of thousands of workers. And to the extent, then, that Hostess’s demise shows us something important about the plight of organized labor today, it’s not that greedy workers have precipitated their own demise. It’s rather that one of organized labor’s biggest challenges over the past four decades has been that union strength was concentrated in industries and among companies that, though once dominant players in the postwar American economy, have often ended up in a slow slide to obsolescence, employing fewer and fewer workers and having less and less money to pay them with. In theory, unions could have made up for this by organizing those companies and industries that have become ascendant since the nineteen-seventies, but for a variety of reasons (including a tougher corporate approach to union-busting, a less friendly legal climate, the difficulty of organizing many small enterprises as opposed to a few big factories, and a tendency to protect existing members rather than put real money into organizing) they haven’t. And the paradox is that as unions have gotten smaller and less influential, they’ve also gotten less popular. That’s why it’s so easy for Hostess’s management to spin the anti-union narrative.

The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce. When organized labor represented more than a third of American workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general. But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, it’s become easier for people to dismiss them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets.

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bho/trumpka/union thugs/team are he!! bent on doing all they can do to see to it businesses toe the line or go out of business one way or the other? Me thinks this is just the beginning of things to come under bho!
L

Were I a detective, Suspect #1 would be Little Debbie. Just like when the original Aunt Jemima got run down by a car, cops were egregiously remiss in not grilling Mrs. Butterworth. Just the facts, Ma’am.

The unions have outlived their purpose and, as was the case in Hostess, were unwilling to adapt to the changing times. Its not a new story — this kind of thing has been happening for years. Next, foreign investors will end up purchasing Hostess’ intellectual property and brands, move manufacturing to places where they will not have to deal with American regulation, and produce the same products, for the same price or less.

And the paradox is that as unions have gotten smaller and less influential, they’ve also gotten less popular

History shows its the other way around. As union activity (strikes, slow downs, incredible ‘union rules’, etc.) was exposed more and more in the MSM, their popularity, or as I think the author really meant, popular support or favorability, began to decline. When this happened, ‘union activity’ needed to increase and become more severe to have the same impact, and turned the unions into the farce we know them to be today.

Look for the union label. When you find it, it’ll be at a going out of business sale.

My husband’s friend was making $19 an hour on the line here in St. Louis. She was willing to take a pay cut to $17 per hour, because she knows how bad things are. But the bakers, who she says make $30, would not. How can the company make any money when you can’t put both bread and a twinkie on the same truck? Not only does Hostess have to send 2 trucks because of union contracts, they have to send 2 workers on some routes, depending on the product (ie the union contract) because one person drives while the other person unloads the truck and puts it on the shelf. And every single union contract for Hostess workers in the entire country will not allow product to simply be delivered to a store, the Hostess union employee HAS to put it on the shelf. Just like steelworkers, unions put companies out of business all too often. Stupid and reckless. Just wait until they figure out now that the election is over, the unemployment insurance is only 6 months, not 2 years. Idiots.

Just wait until they figure out now that the election is over, the unemployment insurance is only 6 months, not 2 years. Idiots.

JustTruth101 on November 18, 2012 at 4:51 PM

That, and the fact that unemployed people are rarely looked at for filling open positions. Most companies today are scalping their talent from currently employed people. I found that out the hard way when the Company I was working for lost a bid for a government contract building MRAPs for the war effort. I ended up unemployed, and the very first call from well over 300 resume submitals was a year in the making. As always, all I needed to do was get someone to give me a call, but it was hard being unemployed in this economy. It is likely to get worse instead of better.

Nowhere does he mention that, due to US tariffs meant to protect our sugar producers, sugar costs at least twice as much here as it does in Mexico. Which is one of the reasons that snacks made there, along with labor costs, are so much cheaper than Hostess snacks (also, Mexico doesn’t have the highest corporate tax in the world).

Especially in the current economy people are willing to sacrifice quality for price and Hostess looses market share.

What can a company that has been priced out of the market do except try to cut expenses where it can?

And I’m sick of this “greedy corporate” meme. Hostess could have sold to Bimbo a few years ago for over half a billion dollars. Now they’ll maybe get just over $100 million. Why keep alive a business that is losing value if your only motivation is “corporate greed?”

But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, it’s become easier for people to dismiss them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets.

That’s because that is exactly what they are. The only thing the Bakers union accomplished was destroying their own jobs and finishing off a once-great American company.

The other thing that has killed unions is that they have sided almost entirely with one political party, and made bitter enemies of about half the population.

Why, that would be the roughly 1/3 of the Hostess workforce that was unionized who put the entire 18,000 people who worked there out of a job. Great work, guys! Way to show Management who really runs the show around here!